Stewart Island has about 750 km of coastline (compared to just 28 km of roads). There is a bay after each bend, and many have nice bright sandy beaches. Beware though that the water temperature reaches only about 14º C on a few very hot summer days. Normally, it’s around 10º C. In the water you see lots and lots of kelp. In summer, you can literally watch it grow as it grows by about 1 m each day. The footpath takes you mostly along the cliffs, and sometimes dips down to the bays.  I passed the Stewart Island golf course where the green fee is only $5, but there aren’t many holes either. Walking a bit back inland as a road was closed, I made a detour heading to Acker’s Point which sports the Stewart Island lighthouse. It was a pleasant walk with lots of great views of the surrounding bays and beaches. Harrold Bay was particularly secluded, and you could view one of the oldest houses on Stewart Island built around 1835/36, Acker’s stone house.

Walking back to town was on paved road from Jensen Bay on passing through Leask Bay where there is a fishermen’s base to Lonnekers Beach which is a swimming beach. The walk offered good views of the wider Halfmoon Bay and its smaller bays along it before being back in town shortly afterwards.

If you want to read more about my vacation on Stewart Island, check out the following posts:

• Heading to the anchor of New Zealand
• Talkative forest
• 81 mouse traps to Māori Beach
• Albatrosses aplenty
• Of bays and forest around Oban
• Christmas Day: A horseshoe and a dead man
• Catch of the day: Blue Cod
• A word on sandflies
• A Local’s Tail and take-off
• Stewart Island / Rakiura in photos and videos

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